Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is one of the main causes of
cancer-associated mortality in females with gynecological
malignancies. Duffy
antigen receptor for
chemokines (DARC) has previously been reported to be involved in
tumor growth and the inhibition of
tumor metastasis. However, the association between DARC and EOC remains unknown. The aim of the present study was to investigate the expression of DARC in the SKOV3 human
epithelial ovarian cancer cell line with the establishment of a subcutaneous model in nude mice. To investigate the effects of DARC on the
tumorigenesis of human
epithelial ovarian cancer cells, GV287-DARC-L.V lentiviral vectors containing a DARC overexpression construct were transfected into SKOV3 cells. The present study revealed that transfection with DARC reduced the viability of SKOV3 cells in vitro by performing an MTT assay. SKOV3-DARC and SKOV3-negative control (NC) cells cultured in vitro were injected into nude mice to establish a subcutaneous model. The ovarian
tumor volumes and the
tumor weights were observed. Immunohistochemistry to detect CD31 expression was used to determine the microvessel density (MVD) in SKOV3-DARC and SKOV3-NC
tumors. The results of the present study revealed that DARC-induced inhibition of
tumor growth was associated with MVD in xenograft
tumors. This suggested that DARC was a negative regulator of
tumor growth in EOC, primarily via the inhibition of
tumor angiogenesis.